Gents, the fact of the matter is that if there was no role for this outfit they would soon cease to exist. If they they did not produce the goods on a regular basis to the required standard then they would have been given the chop some time ago. If there was any doubt about their reliability or professionalism they would have been binned or merged in the past. The fact that they are growing in size (relatively to the size of the RAF) speaks volumes.